I'm finally down to my top three on the V&H site. Right now I've got SEII balony cut slip ons, which I'm going to trade in for a set of V&H.

In order is this:

1. Short shots
2. Stepped drag
3. Straight shots

my question now is this: Is there really a performance difference between these pipes? I mean yeah there all V&H, but does one sound better than the other? Too loud? Anybody that has these?

thanks fellas....I love this forum

 

Yes.. performance and sound differences. I've had big shot shorts (similar to shortshots) and had long shots and there's a difference.. The long shots had a deeper tone on my old evo and performed better. I wasn't too impressed with the shorts on my 04 for performance or sound (cracky) but it could be attributed to jetting... The stepped drags look cool.. don't know much about them. Straightshots, longshots.. fairly much the same.

If you want performance.. I've had the guys at V&H tell me themselves, the 2 into 1 propipe HS is IT in their eyes for performance.. but some may not dig the look or sound.. it's different. I like it.

Running rineharts now.. never happier.. deeper sound than all those.. and runs like a scalded dog on my fatboy without much tuning hassle.

 

hmm, I had hear that V&H can drop performance, wonder how much of a drop I'll get from my slip ons to V&H

 

I just installed the V&H Big Radius pipes on my NT. They have a deeper tone than my Santee pipes did and look killer.

 

did you loose any performance?

 

I just installed the big shot shorts on my springer. They are loud. I knew they would be and like Babs said they aren't too deep sounding. I don't really judge the sound of a pipe until after maybe 1k miles or so. They need to cake up so to speak to reveal their true sound. I only put hem on 2 days ago and only have maybe 100 miles on them.

I tried to pick a pipe that I hoped would give me the right combo between looks and sound. I don't worry about performance. I have the stage 1 air kit installed and will say however that the bike seems to respond noticably better since swaping the hd slip-ons and going to the v&h.

 

I have a set of Straightshots on my EVO springer, w/ cam and SS carb/intake. They are very loud but way more power than the SE slipons. I just installed a set of V&H "quiet baffles" in them and it's makes the sound deeper but not much quieter. I did lose some power with these, going to get it to dealer for re-jetting and see if that helps.

 

I have a set of Straightshots on my EVO springer, w/ cam and SS carb/intake. They are very loud but way more power than the SE slipons. I just installed a set of V&H "quiet baffles" in them and it's makes the sound deeper but not much quieter. I did lose some power with these, going to get it to dealer for re-jetting and see if that helps.

 

I added a Power Commander at the same time but the air filter was stock. I could feel a gain in performance with the butt-o-meter. Today I install the air filter. It's dirty due to riding home in the rain but could snap some pics for you to see what they look like on a NT.

 

Not sure about the others. I have the Straightshots on my Fatboy. They are damn loud. I may try the quiet baffles to tone them down a bit.

jcasella - Do you like the sound better with the baffles?